It has been a difficult year, also in the vineyard, which has suffered a very virulent mildew attack. With the years that I am [[[ 71 ]]] I have possibly seen two or three years like this. We organic winegrowers have suffered a lot because the losses have been very high: In the cava area of Penedès, we can talk about an average 50% up to 100% in some properties. However, if it had to happen, it had better happen this year. With the drop in sales due to the covid and the stocks of previous years, production has been regulated naturally.
Ripening has arrived very soon as a result of the warm days, the cool nights and the good thermal differential. The quality has been very good: adequate degree, perfect acidity – high and unbeatable health. Everything has been motivated by the dry and ventilated weather of July and August. On the one hand, the low humidity and relatively cool nights have favored excellent ripening. And on the other, the grape berries affected by the mildew have dried completely and have not conferred unpleasant tastes to the must.
On September 10 we had already harvested all the white varieties. Luck! Because a storm fell with a strong wind and stony included that discharged 36 l/m2 in thirty minutes. This 2020 the rainfall has been very high: 628 l/m2 until September 15; when the annual median is 500 – 550 l/m2. The greatness of viticulture is that no year is the same; neither the quantities nor the qualities. In Cava Guilera we face the end of 2020 with strength and enthusiasm. We will live with the uncertainty of our times and we will try to be intelligent.
To read the future correctly, face it calmly and not forget that crises [[[ also ]]] are an opportunity. Now more than ever, the time has come to cooperate.